A short distance on from our last photos, we met a lady sitting in the sun and using her binoculars to look across to Mont Blanc. Being friendly bears we stopped to say hello and the lady told us that she knew someone who was climbing the mountain that day, and she was attempting to follow progress.
We didn't realise this was possible from the far side of the valley where we were, but our leader Simon, pointed out that it was possible to see footsteps in the snow, on the route up to the summit. We took a closer look and saw that he was right. It made the climb to the top of Mont Blanc seem far more real to us. We were almost a part of it.
Thinking about what it would be like to climb Mont Blanc, kept us occupied on the final push to the Le Brevent, which was our summit for the day and the last one of our Tour de Mont Blanc. Here we are at the top ...
... we could see for miles so it was great to be sitting on a table which mapped out for us all the surrounding mountains that we could see.
Our pleasure at being here and having completed the final climb of our Tour, was brought to a sudden end when the news came in of the avalanche that had occurred earlier that morning on an approach mountain to Mont Blanc, and killed many climbers. We were stunned and, as we looked towards Mont Blanc again, it looked calm and serene as though nothing had happened, but we couldn't view it the way we had just minutes earlier. We did hope the lady we'd spoken to earlier was not going to be involved in this tragedy.
But life goes on, and we couldn't stay too sad for long. We needed to celebrate our completion of the Tour de Mont Blanc and enjoy our final leisurely descent back to Chamonix. We were so high that to get back down required 2 cable cars, if we chose to use them. We decided to walk down to Plan Praz, the half way point, as we didn't like the thought of our walking being over. It was also quite an exciting descent as, in season, it is a black ski run. It was very steep, and, in places, there was snow.
Someone, not us, had been snowman building - we thought it was a lovely touch and a far more sensible activity than tight rope walking, without a safety net, over a huge drop. It was exciting to watch but complete madness.
After just over 500 metres of steep descent we reached Plan Praz, still high at 2000m. We were walking with our minders and 2 lovely ladies from our group, Julie and Jonquil. When we saw there was a restaurant with a lovely outdoor seating area, we all agreed we should celebrate our achievement with a bottle of wine.
It was lovely to share it with friends and to know that we were now Tour de Mont Blanc veterans. It ranks along with our walk to Santiago de Compostella, as our greatest walking achievement.
We had tickets provided for the cable car descent to Chamonix and we took it, as we had done all we needed to and we'd completed the most interesting part of the descent.
We were looking forward to joining up with the rest of our group at our campsite and celebrating our joint success.
Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx
SJ254784 - nr Llanfair Hill - 430 m
8 years ago
3 comments:
The snow bear picture is very appropriate for this time of the year - especially after the John Lewis adverts.
The snow bear picture is very appropriate for this time of the year - especially after the John Lewis adverts.
Congratulations! Bet that celebratory bottle tasted good in the fresh mountain air!
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